How to play
How to play mahjong (four players, not solitaire)
Step-by-step Mahjong for a first table, including what the Tilehaus interface expects you to click.
Before the first tile
Open the Mahjong table. Choose seat count 4. For a first game, enable bots so empty seats still take their turns.
Read the suits
Characters (wan) are numbered 1–9 in Chinese numerals. Bamboo (tiao) shows stick counts; the 1 bamboo is often a bird. Dots (tong) are coin circles.
Winds are East, South, West, North. Dragons are white, green, and red. Honors cannot form chows.
Call with priority
If more than one player can use a discard, hu beats pong/kong, and pong/kong beats chow. Tilehaus resolves claims in that order after every player has passed or called.
Keep a flexible pair
Do not lock a pair early if those tiles could complete two chows. Isolated honors are often the first discards unless you already have two of a kind.
Frequently asked questions
Straight answers to what people search — for Google, voice, and assistants.
How many tiles are in mahjong?
A Chinese playing set without bonus tiles has 136 tiles. Boxed sets sold with flowers and seasons have 144. Tilehaus deals the 136-tile wall: 108 suited tiles, 16 winds, and 12 dragons.
How many players do you need for mahjong?
Four. Classic Chinese and Hong Kong mahjong is a four-seat game. Three-player tables exist as house variants with a shortened wall. Tilehaus fills empty chairs with bots so you can start without three friends.
How do you win in mahjong?
You win (hu) by completing four melds and a pair — 14 tiles. A meld is a pong of three identical tiles, a kong of four, or a chow of three consecutive tiles in one suit. You can win by self-draw or by claiming a discard.
What is a pong, chow, and kong in mahjong?
A pong (pung) is three identical tiles. A kong is four identical tiles and draws a replacement from the wall. A chow is three consecutive ranks in one suit. Only the player to the discarder’s left may chow; anyone may pong, kong, or hu.
Is mahjong hard to learn?
The first hand is the hard part: three suits, winds, and dragons. After you can read tiles, the loop is draw-or-claim, then discard. Scoring charts (faan, han) are a later skill. Tilehaus uses a teaching table so you can finish a hand before you memorize a club chart.
How long does a game of mahjong take?
One hand is often 10–20 minutes. A social set of hands runs 45–90 minutes. Club sessions can last hours. Online with bots, a single teaching hand is closer to 15 minutes.
What is the difference between mahjong and mahjong solitaire?
They only share tile art. Four-player mahjong is a draw-and-discard meld game with a wall. Mahjong solitaire (Shanghai) is a one-player matching puzzle: remove free identical pairs until the layout is clear.
Can you play mahjong with two or three players?
The designed game is four seats. Two- and three-player house rules exist, usually by removing tiles or using dead walls. On Tilehaus you still sit a four-seat table; bots take the empty chairs and only make legal claims.
How many tiles does each player get in mahjong?
Each player is dealt 13 tiles. The dealer (East) starts with 14 and discards first. After that, a hand stays at 13 until you declare hu on a 14th tile.
How does mahjong scoring / faan work?
On the Tilehaus teaching table a win is scored in faan (fan), then paid as 2^faan points (cap 128). Dragon pungs, seat/round wind pungs, self-draw, all pungs, mixed or pure one suit, and all honors are the usual patterns. A chicken hand (0 faan) still pays 1. Club charts differ; this is not an official HKMA schedule.
Can you play mahjong online free?
Yes. Tilehaus runs a free four-player teaching table in the browser — no account required. Bots fill empty seats. Remote friends join with a room code when the friend server is running.